The Best with the Best
by LongliveRanma
Summary: Hello! I noticed a lack of good One Piece and Ranma 1/2 stories. And I decided to change that! Here we go! Watch as our grief stricken hero falls into the world of devil fruits with a vow. A vow to get stronger.
1. Prologue

Hellos! I decided to do a One Piece and Ranma crossover! So I believe I'm going to stick with the three current stories I have up now before adding any new ones, this way I can get the stories being produced faster. The original title of this story was going to be Half Piece. See what I did there? Anyways enjoy what I write up and review if you want. I have a very rocky idea of how this will turn out. Ah and I realized that this is taking place while Ranma has his curse, even in his curvaceous form I will refer to him with feminine pronouns.

Yeah guys, I totally own One Piece and Ranma 1/2 unlike you people I have money resulting in the free time that I'm pathetically spending to please your short attention span. No seriously One Piece is owned by **Eiichiro Oda** (Praise the man) and Ranma 1/2 is owned by Rumiko Takahashi.

Prologue

"No." A voice called out, "No, no no no, NO! Don't leave me, please. Please!"

The onlookers to this scene could feel the lost of hope, the depression, emanating from the boy, this darkened their own moods, despite the victory of a should be impossible battle. As they watched the display, they all thought the same. Was he a second too late? Did she... die? Where was the happy ending? Where was a miracle?

The air began to get heavy from the sadness. And soon quiet sobs filled the air, shocking those present who knew the young man. Ranma Saotome doesn't cry. Male or female. Never. Yet here he was grieving over the prone body of his fiancee. He really loved her against his constant sayings. But did she love him back? That question was left unanswered for the rest of his life.

The sobs stopped. And the people worriedly looked at the young man, currently woman,worriedly as he lifted himself up along with the nude body of the blue haired teen. After glancing at the onlookers and staring hatefully at a couple winged figures, he turned and bounded away over the mountains. He disappeared quickly, faster than what they expected him to do after the a grueling fight. He should be running on fumes.

Plip plop.

It was starting to rain, no, it started to pour strong and it stayed strong. The tears of the clouds cooling the unnaturally warm air. A cat, duck, panda, and piglet all looked each other and through animal instincts or something along the lines they understood each other and sprinted with their small bodies (3 of them anyways) in the direction of the fleeing grief-stricken redhead. They needed to get to him before he could do anything rash in his disjointed frame of mind. And at the speed the girl was moving, they knew there was no way they could make it in time within their animal bodies. They were right.

By the time they reached the top of the mountainside they were able to behold a startling scene. As the rain poured on it flooded the pools of Jusenkyo, evident from the overlapping waters, only the bamboo poles marked where each pool was supposed to be. Despair quickly filled the minds of the animals only to be replaced with uneasiness as they looked beyond the pools. On the piece of land next to the flooded pools they could make out the body of a girl, around the girl were wet lilacs, daylilies, bellflowers and what appeared to be green roses. The girl herself had her eyes closed and hands clasped over her heart, despite the distance between them they could see she was smiling beyond death.

To the side of the deceased figure was another young woman in a black tanktop which stuck to her body like a second skin. Her redhair falling down lifeless as the way she was drooping down her body, leaning forwards with her bare arms loose from her body. They could see a green aura flickering on and off around the body of the girl.

In the near surroundings they made out the rustling of another person. Coming through the bushes of the mountains behind the animals was a short pudgy Chinese man in a green outfit. There was also a small girl in pink on the back of the man, the daughter. Both of them were soaked from the rain as they were. Suddenly the man in the green outfit gasped fearfully at the scene in front of him.

"The pools of Jusenkyo!" He said. "They are flooded! This no good! The waters mix and results are bad. Very bad."

The animals stared at the pudgy man.

"No know what happen if go in but is very dangerous! Honored customers we must make sure boy who fall in nyannichuan no fall in by grief!" The animal's eyes widened in realization and they started to go down the hill. Rival or fiancee, they can't allow the life of a friend to end.

They were too late.

The guide's prediction was right, the petite girl inertly walked herself to the edge of the pool, her head slightly looking up and blue eyes gazing at the flooded waters.

"Honored customer! Do not! It too too dangerous!" The man shouted desperately, the cries of the animals along him could be heard also. The constant downpour of water muted their warnings.

She fell in.

As the despondent body of the girl hit the hazardous waters a bright white light engulfed her body.

Ranma Saotome was no more to the their world.

Ranma woke up. He looked around and first thing he noticed was that he was... living. He could tell without looking was currently male. He was still in the black tanktop and the black baggy pants that he always liked. In his immediate surroundings he noticed he was in a forest, an extremely large forest at that. The plants were outrageously out of proportion with what he was used to. To the right of him was a white carrot looking tree with pointed rocks around the bottom.

His memories hit him like a train. A winged human with the power of fire. Saffron. He was fighting the monster. Along there was a purple haired girl, and boy in a black and yellow bandanna, a boy with coke glasses and long hair, and a heavyset man with glasses and a white bandanna. Shampoo. Ryoga. Mousse. Pops. There was another girl too. She was cute, had her blue hair short, small nose and small lips with brown eyes.

"Akane." He whispered. He wasn't strong enough. He wasn't strong enough to beat the immortal bastard. Saffron killed Akane even after defeating Saffron himself it was too late to save Akane. If only... if only he was strong enough to save Akane one more second sooner.

He remembered another thing. Wasn't he supposed to be... dead? He jumped into the flooded springs of Jusenkyo looking to drown his sorrows with death. And now here he is. Where is 'here'? It doesn't matter now, he was alive at the moment. His mind was clear and set on one goal: To get stronger.  
His eyes scanned his surroundings and fell on a hat. It was a strawhat with a red band wrapping around the bottom of the hat. There was also a small piece of paper sticking from the top of the band. What was a hat doing here?

Suddenly there was a rustle to his right and from the dense trees he saw a boy approach. The boy was wearing a red coat with no shirt underneath, revealing an X shaped scar across his chiseled chest and abs. He had light blue pants that had a little fluff at the ends. He had a circle face with pointy black hair sticking about wildly. Under his left eye was another scar that was stitched up.

Behind the boy was an old looking man with long gray hair and glasses. Under the glasses he saw a straight scar running vertically through the middle of the man's right eye. Matching his hair, he wore a large white overcoat that was opened to reveal a yellow button down shirt and green pants that had black spots. He was staring at Ranma inquisitively.

The younger of the two spoke, "Who are you?"

Ranma hesitantly spoke "I'm Ranma Saotome."

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy. What are you doing here?"

"Nice to meet you Luffy." Ranma stood up, grimacing slightly from pain. "I'm here..." He started. "I'm here..." He repeated. "To train." he finished with a spark of determination in his eyes.


	2. Chapter 1

Hellos! I have one very VERY important question for you, my dear, dear, readers. Should I give Ranma the powers of devil fruit? If yes then I'm not going to do it half way. If no, then no. Other than that ENJOY!

Blah blah blah don't own them blah blah Rumiko Takahashi blah blah Oda blah blah bleh.

"Haki is the mysterious power that found in every living being in the world. It is not that different from the normal senses. Through training you can be able to hon..." The man trailed off and looked at his two 'students.'

A small vein bulged on the top right on his forehead. He walked in front of his pupils who had their heads down seemingly motionless and reared his leg back.

"POW!"

"Ahhhhhh!" Twin voices screamed in terror.

"SPLASH!"

Two bodies floated up, both facing downwards into the water. They started to float off away, powered by the current of the river. One of the bodies had changed shape and the other started to sink.

"..."

The past week had been very interesting for the old man. What can you say? Dimensional travel is pretty different from the ordinary. Ranma was also certainly such an interesting boy. It occurred to him that Luffy and Ranma were very alike.

F **l** _a_ s _ **h** b_ **a** cK

"I need to get stronger." Ranma said.

"Why?" Rayleigh asked.

"Because I need to be able to protect the ones I care about."

"Why?" The question was repeated.

"Because... I'm weak." It obviously pained Ranma to say that.

"What makes you weak?"

"I couldn't protect her... I wasn't strong enough to beat my enemy to save her! I needed just a second more! I can't protect a single damn thing!"

That sounded awfully familiar to a recent event. "How did you get to this island?"

"I tried to... kill myself and I found myself here."

"Coward." A new voice joined the two.

"What?" Ranma snapped indignantly.

"I said COWARD!" Luffy screamed.

Ranma walked up to Luffy threateningly. "I risked my LIFE against an enemy I couldn't defeat. But I won. Does that make me a coward?!"

"I did that too! I lost my brother! What I DIDN'T do was kill myself like a coward! I didn't even think about killing myself! I was furious, but I wasn't a COWARD just to kill myself!"

"Shut up! You have no idea what I've been through!"

"Yes I do! It happened to me!"

"I am not a COWARD!" With that Ranma threw a punch at Luffy to which Luffy caught.

"Yes you are." This was said softer than the earlier shouts before.

The fight began. Rayleigh watched from behind the scenes in interest, wondering how it would turn out.

Ranma quickly discovered that his normal punches did not affect Luffy, they strangely were absorbed and bounced back... like rubber.

Luffy quickly discovered that it would be an easy fight. This proved to be wrong.

"GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!" Luffy's hand reared back to impossible human lengths and snapped towards Ranma traveling at lightning speeds. Unfortunately for Luffy, Ranma was faster. Before contact, Ranma disappeared and reappeared above and behind Luffy and sparing no seconds Ranma kicked Luffy's head to the side. It hurt.

Rayleigh raised an eyebrow in curiousity. Was that Haki?

Luffy grunted. A flew back into a tree and bounced back. "That was weak." Luffy dashed back towards the fight.

"Who are you calling weak!?" Ranma ran to meet him.

"GOMU GOMU NO GATLING GUN!"

"KACHU TENSHIN AMGAURIKEN"

Fists met fists and fists met bodies. The two of them had recently exhausted themselves in an attempt to protect their loved one, they were most definitely not at full capacity. The two un-relentlessly battered into each other. And eventually they both flew back roughly five feet in between them.

Ranma initiated the fight again. Knowing he could not use confidence he delved in the power of Ryoga's specialty. "SHI SHI HOKODAN!" A large green-ish energy ball erupted towards Luffy tearing the ground up despite being in mid air. Luffy easily dodged the attack and dashed for his own.

Rayleigh grew even more interested.

"GOMU GOMU NO BAZOOKA!" Luffy flew to point blank range, his arms extended behind him and snapped forward at extreme speeds only to have Ranma pull his arms apart like opening a door.

The two stopped where they were staring at each other and panting. Ranma could feel himself fading, his ki slowly sapping away through its excess use. He had to use his ki much than he had to seeing as his normal punches didn't hurt Luffy. Luffy on the other hand felt a little bit winded, he could keep going on for longer. At an unknown signal they charged.

"That's enough." Rayleigh appeared between the two, his hands out blocking both their punches from contacting each other. Ranma collapsed on the ground through exhaustion while Luffy remained standing.

"You're right." Ranma said from the ground, his chest rising and falling rapidly. "I am weak." Tears welled up in his eyes. "I shouldn't have tried to kill myself. I should've pushed myself harder."

Luffy stared at him impassively. He looked to be as if he was thinking of something.

"Then I'll help you get stronger." Rayleigh said. "You fight in a style I've never seen before. And I've been around a long time." Rayleigh chuckled. "Even in the odds you were in you fought with grace and control. Unlike the way somebody here."

Ranma said nothing.

"Join my crew."

"What?" Ranma looked up to the now grinning boy.

"Join my crew."

"Crew? What do you mean?"

"My pirate crew of course." Luffy stared at him as if he was the stupidest person in the world.

"Pirate?" Ranma shook his head from where he was laying. "You mean those disgusting savages that go on wooden sinkable ships with those black hats?"

"Well I have a strawhat. But uh huh." Nodding his head rapidly while taking no offense to 'disgusting savages'

"I refuse. I'm a martial artist and a martial artist protects the weak. I'm not going to drop so low to a... pirate."

"A martian artist? WOAH! You're an alien painter?" Luffy's eyes seemed to be popping from their sockets, turning into stars. "Lemme show you one of my drawings!" Luffy started fishing around in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with pencil markings. It was a human fish? Maybe? It was a terrible drawing.

"..." A dark depressing gloom settled over Ranma.

"What ARE you?!" Luffy asked in wonder of the martian artist.

"...What are YOU?!" Ranma shouted indignantly.

"I'm going to be the pirate King in all of the Blue seas, I'm gonna conquer the Red and Grand lines. And," he grinned like the Chesire cat, "I'm going to be the first Pirate to get One Piece."

One Piece? Red and Grand lines? Pirate King? Ranma's head started to hurt. Either one, the people in front of him were crazy. Two he went back in time to the Pirate age. Three, dimensional travel as the result of the unpredictable consequence of the mixing magics in the Jusenkyo springs. Four punishment for attempt of suicide in the after life. Or five, he was having a very strange dream. He was inclined to believe the first, fourth, and fifth options but from the throbbing pain in his body and the fact he didn't see hellfire or Nabiki like demons torturing him, he brushed those options away. Time travel or dimension travel.

"Ugh, this is worse than Nerima." He muttered, shaking his head of his thoughts.

"Nerima? That sounds tasty!"

Dimensional travel it is!

Then it started to rain. Due to the island of Rusukaina's nature it poured hard. And already the land they were on started to flood, it was an inch up their feet.

"Hey Ranma your chest got bigger." Luffy started poking experimentally at Ranma's chest. "Your hair is red too. Are you some type of weird devil fruit user? Like Ivankov?"

"..." Wait what? Devil fruit? Curiosity was able to, thankfully, override anger and he voiced his confusion. "Devil fruit? What's that?"

Rayleigh stepped in to explain. Through the conversation, they discovered Ranma was from a different world. Ranma discovered what Devil fruit were and that Luffy had the Gum Gum fruit, resulting in the rubber body he had now. That explained many questions in the fight. Ranma also explained his life and curse and Rayleigh explained the world as simple as he could.

"That's certainly interesting."

"That settles it. You're joining my crew." Luffy said, his arms crossed and nodded his head once in confirmation of his decisions.

"No." Ranma said.

"Well I'm saying no to your no."

"Well I'll say no to your no about my no."

"Then I'm saying no to your no about my no to your no!"

"..." As Rayleigh watched the 'argument' escalate couldn't help but sweatdrop. Heavily.

Later that night Luffy and Ranma worked together to kill a monstrous chicken. And Rayleigh noticed he started to sweatdrop quite a lot. The two boys were fight over a drumstick. While eating Ranma seemingly snatched Luffy's food and ate it and Luffy would snatch Ranma's food and eat it. Neither boy seemed to notice that the other boy was eating their own food.

That was the first day.

The second day Rayleigh questioned Ranma to how he was able to actually hurt Luffy without the use of a sharp weapon.

"Ki." Ranma said, he held his hand out and with a small flash of light a ball of blue energy appeared in his hand. This is not haki Rayleigh mentally noted as you can not actually project your haki in a physical form. But the two were ideally similar, both derived from the life of the user, though ki seemed to be from the person themselves while haki was from their surroundings. It wouldn't be too difficult to teach Ranma about haki either.

The old muscular man was shown Ranma's capabilities and Luffy showed his. Luffy appeared to have lost his eyes as he saw a tornado erupt from Ranma hands when he fought against a gigantic bull. Ranma also showed Ryoga's rock breaking technique, soul of ice, yama sen ken, umi sen ken which seemed to have hid from even Rayleigh's expertly honed haki, and his various other techniques. Ranma was fascinated with Luffy's second gear and third gear. Rayleigh decided to have a merciless fight against the two of them as a team.

Ranma panted heavily. That man was a DEMON and he didn't even have a devil fruit, and he did even have the mark of the battling god! Ranma glanced at Luffy to the side of him who also seemed to be faring the same as he was.

"Luffy," he called out, "I got an idea. Do what I do."

Luffy looked at him, "Okay."

Ranma then looked at Rayleigh, Ranma's steel blue eyes locking with Rayleigh's small black ones. Rayleigh mere raised a white eyebrow in response. Did Ranma hold back one of his abilities?

"Prepare to witness the Saotome Anything Goes' School of indiscriminate grappling Special move!" Ranma announced loudly and shifted to a stance that Luffy copied.

Rayleigh crossed his arms. Let's see what this is.

Ranma took a deep breath. "RUN AWAY!" With that he sped away with Luffy from the demon man. Rayleigh's right eye twitched. A lot.

Rayleigh also discovered the Crouch of the Wild Tiger when he confronted the two.

During dinner, Luffy and Ranma talked about their friends. Luffy's grandfather was very similar to his own father.

"When we told him to go North he went up!" Luffy laughed loudly, slapping his knee, to which Ranma took advantage of and stole a piece of meat.

"Ha! As if that's bad. There's a guy who took four whole days to find the back of his own house!"

"You have weird friends Ranma."

"As if you're one to talk! You're friends with a skeleton, a talking reindeer, a pervert and a cyborg!"

"There's also Nami, Robin, Sanji and Usopp."

"Who are they?"

Ranma discovered they compared with Nabiki, Kasumi (kinda), Happosai and Kuno, respectively.

"So your pirate crew consists of only nine people? You guys call yourselves the Strawhat crew? You basically forced each one of them into your crew too?"

Luffy nodded while chewing on bone. Ranma's friend were weird, a violent tomboy, three transgender people, a pig, a cat, an old ghoul, an old gnome, a money drain, a lazy panda, a blind duck, and many other strange people. (You guys DO know who each description matches to, right?)

"But other crews have hundreds upon hundreds of people and a larger ship than your little 'Thousand Sunny,' so why in the world would I join your measly crew?"

"Cause I said so."

"..."

On the third day, they discovered the Neko Ken.

While walking through the dense forest Luffy and Ranma heard a rustle of leaves. Looking towards the source, Luffy saw two rounded triangles ears popping up from a tree. And out pounced an enormous tiger. Behind him, Luffy heard a "meow." The moment Luffy turned his head a black blur flew past him and started to attack the over-sized tiger roughly a hundred times larger than him.

Luffy's eyes widened. That was Ranma. Why is he acting like a cat? A couple seconds later her saw the tiger running away as fast as the tiger could. Luffy stared at a crouched Ranma who appeared to licking his wounds.

"Ranma?" Luffy asked.

Ranma pounced.

Later, Rayleigh witnessed a screaming scratched up Luffy sprinting to him with Ranma following close behind. He noticed the change of posture Ranma had, and the fact he was running on all four. The moment Ranma laid eyes on Rayleigh, Ranma froze and instinctively ran as fast as he could away from the man. It took the rest of the day to find Ranma and get him out of his trance. Ranma gave another explanation to that.

"Oh... then I'm sorry for stretching you into a rubber ball and playing with you like a toy Luffy." Ranma said sheepishly when he was told some of the actions he had done.

Luffy said nothing, he currently trying to get his head away from touching his arms, legs, butt and stomach at the same time.

Rayleigh had a few cuts himself, his hair was much shorter too. Needless to say Ranma was soon sleeping but it was not through his own will.

The fifth day Rayleigh learned that despite Luffy overshadowed Ranma, Ranma learned at an extraordinary rate and that he had the King's haki to his disposal, just like Luffy. He was almost beaten by Ranma and Luffy, not that the two would remember.

"Damnit! That stupid haki thing is reading all my attacks!" Ranma thought frustratingly. Luffy was quite irritated as well, he couldn't land a hit on the man no matter what he tried.

Rayleigh was simply drinking a bottle of wine as he 'fought' against the two teens. The two teens put their heads together, trying to think of a strategy.

"Ahah!" Ranma suddenly yelled out. Ranma dashed towards Rayleigh in a full out sprint, covering ground within a second he threw a punch towards the left side of Rayleigh's body to which was blocked with the man's left hand. The hand holding the wine bottle, Ranma snatched the bottle out of the man's hand, ran a relatively safe distance away and took a mere sip of the wine and threw it to Luffy who did the same.

"Hahaha! Hiccup. Fear za wraf ov drunk fu!" Ranma declared, running towards Rayleigh.

Luffy followed behind him he too was hiccuping and was swaying as he moved.

Rayleigh sweatdropped for the hundredth time since he met Ranma.

After recovering from a close call of 'losing' he beat the two up harshly.

And now it was the seventh day. Today.

Rayleigh finally decided to start to teach thoroughly about haki. Luffy and Ranma were definitely not listening learners.

Rayleigh started to slowly walk to save the two drowning teenagers.

For one day, the two boys were able to get pretty far involving haki, Ranma had a headstart with his ki training and he would just use the same techniques he would with ki but for haki.

Later at night Rayleigh listened to their conversation.

"The world's best musician, chef, navigator, archaeologist, swordsman, doctor, sniper, and builder lead by the world's best pirate huh?" Ranma said. "Well, Luffy, now you got yourself the world's best martial artist."

Author's note:

How did you guys like the very first chapter? Yeah I know, my fight scene kinda sucked. To me, I find Luffy much stronger than Ranma. And Rayleigh to be stronger than the two combined. After all Luffy had many more life threatening adventures than Ranma did. What do you guys think? Read and review please!


	3. Chapter 2

This chapter took much longer to get out because baby cousin came over... computers and magnets don't mix and my work got deleted... So I had to put my brain power to work to remember stuff. ALSO BECAUSE OF THAT... THIS CHAPTER IS MUCH SHORTER THAN ORIGINALLY INTENDED IM SORRY!

Hellos! One question! Should I have romance? Any suggestions of a pairing? Also I personally hope that you people have read One Piece. Why? Because I really, really, really, don't want to bother with descriptions or too much plot explaining. One of my many weaknesses. Other than that, enjoy!

Chapter 2

"Luffy!" A feminine voice called out.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" Luffy picked up his trademark hat, thinking back to the two years, "Time sure goes fast, it's been two years already. Where the hell is Ranma!?" Luffy said to himself.

A woman with blonde hair, a green snake bow and a white cape appeared from the trees. "The boat's ready to go! We can leave at any time!"

"Ok! Thanks we gotta wait for someone first."

The woman looked past Luffy and sweatdropped at seeing gargantuan animals brawling for a piece of meat, one of the animals, a lion was growling at her.

"Someone? Do you mean Rayleigh?" Marguerite asked curiously.

"Nah, Rayleigh left a while ago." Luffy said waving her off. Then all of the sudden he shouted to the animals more specifically to the growling lion "HEY! Look closely, these are my friends." He gave the animals a stern glare and the lion backed off fearfully.

Four other women appeared from the trees. One was a strikingly beautiful woman, one was an old gho- er lady, and the other two were enormous reptilian-like women. Boa Hancock, some name I've forgotten, Boa Sandersonia, and Boa Marigold respectively.

"So you went and became the boss of this island." Boa Sandersonia said bluntly noticing the submissiveness of the animals.

"Yea unfortunately that means I can't eat em. I wanna know what they taste like. Though I didn't tame _all_ of them. Ranma has a cat." Luffy said whilst drooling a bit at the mentioning of tasting the beasts that were sitting quite close to him.

Boa Hancock frowned a bit. "Ranma? I thought you and Rayleigh were the only people on this island."

"Nah, there was some disturbance in the space time continuum or something like that." Luffy then shouted "HEY RANMA! COME ON OUT ALREADY WE GOTTA GO AND YOU GOTTA MEET MY FRIENDS."

The five women looked past Luffy as they saw a rustle of leaves and branches and out emerged a red haired teen wearing a red shirt similar to the one Luffy was wearing but her's was buttoned. She had blue eyes and was riding a large white cat. She rid the cat and jumped off next to Luffy.

Hancock immediately scowled. Who was this woman who seemed to be a good friend of her beloved Luffy. She voiced her question. "Luffy, my love, who is this woman standing so close next to you." Hancock was considering turning this woman into stone but it wouldn't do good to make a statue of her husband's friend.

As if Luffy read the last bit of her thoughts, he shouted, "Hey! I already told you I'm not marrying you." He tilted his head to the side, bending it further than humanely (normal ones that is) possible. "I told you this is Ranma."

The girl dubbed Ranma stared at Luffy's friends and back at Luffy not missing Luffy's outburst. Ranma spoke up, "What did you beat her in combat or somethin'?" She then muttered to herself "Stupid amazons are even in other dimensions. They even have weird colored hair. And they have a marriage law too? Wha! There's even another old ghoul... LIKE WHAT THE HECK." A dark gloomy haze surrounded the red haired girl.

Luffy ignored Ranma's last outburst and replied, "Well I beat her sisters and saved my friends from being stone forever and for some reason she wants to marry me."

The girl muttered to herself, "Typical."

The mentioned old ghoul spoke up. "Luffy, what Hancock meant to say is: Why is this girl with you? I thought that there was nobody else on this island."

The girl was still muttering to herself as Luffy explained, "This is Ranma Saotome and he is from another dimension or somethin' like that" He then turned to Ranma, "Hey Ranma these are my friends, Marguerite, Hancock, her sisters, and some old woman."

"Hey!" The old woman cried out.

Sandersonia seemed to notice something strange. "He?" She spoke out.

"Yea that's right I'm a guy." The red haired girl shouted out, her arms crossed under her ample chest.

"Is it some type of devil fruit?" Marigold asked.

"I'm already hating the return to society." The girl mumbled.

Luffy spoke up. "Nah Ranma's just a weird person."

The old woman spoke up again "What do you mean."

"I'll go get my stuff..."

"Whats with her? Er him?" Marguerite asked.

"I don't know" Luffy said, "When he woke up he went straight for the restroom." Luffy put his hand on his chin in a thinking pose, "something about 'stupid time of month.'"

"Ahh" All five women chorused in realization.

There was a growl, "I'm hungry Luffy said bluntly." The animals behind him flinched and froze, their bodies tense and they started to inch away from the hungry tiny human.

Hancock's aura around her turned into a visible pink and she blushed as she put her hands on her cheeks delicately, "Don't worry Luffy, I already loaded all your favorite foods on the boat. I would make such a fine wife for you."

Before Luffy could retort about not marrying her, Ranma returned with his pack. "All right let's go." He turned around and whistled and the former large cat shrunk and jumped into his bag. It's small white head popping up from the flap of the bag.

Luffy spoke, "Too bad none of my animals ate the Size Size fruit, I wanted to take them along." He turned to the four enormous beasts, "Guess this is finally farewell huh guys." Surprisingly the beasts looked sad at seeing their master leave.

Luffy put his strawhat on and started to walk off with Ranma following behind a little depressed at his current condition. He yelled, pumping his fists up in the air excitedly, "Let's go see my crew!"

On the boat Ranma was sitting down with Luffy munching on the food Boa Hancock had loaded up next to him his white cat was playing with a bone. Hancock was scowling at the girl for eating Luffy's food, that girl was even stealing from Luffy's own plate! Suddenly she couldn't take it any more.

"MERO MERO MELLOW!" A beam of hearts headed towards the red haired girl who was chomping on a drumstick. As the beam passed through her she didn't flinch and kept on eating as if nothing happened.

Instead the girl spoke, "Hey Luffy what's that supposed to do?"

"...It didn't work. You're... not... infatuated with me?"

"Of course not." Ranma said matter of factually.

"Am I not beautiful?"

"Sure." The redhead said halfheartedly.

This is impossible! There is no way this girl could resist her beauty! She's just like Luffy...

Finally the food on the table was gone and Luffy patted his puffed up stomach and released a content sigh. "Ahh, your food is the best."

Hancock forgot all about her failure to kill Luffy's friend and put her hands on her cheeks and swooned. "Thank you Luffy." She said blushing.

"So who is this woman or man... with you Luffy?" A new voice popped in.

"GAH! The old ghoul lives!" Ranma said fearfully before she was bopped in the head by Luffy. Ranma muttered a bit before rubbing his head where Luffy had hit him. He then laid back in his chair, managing to balance in on two legs. "Right so my name is Ranma Saotome. And I am a man despite what you see here." He gestured to his well endowed chest. "Let's just say I got transported to the island magically and I started to train there with Luffy and Rayleigh and now I'm here." The currently female Ranma said bluntly.

After more talking and explaining the Kuja Pirates accepted Ranma and eventually they arrived at Sabaody.

"Hey Luffy, I'm going on ahead. I don't haveta worry about getting caught. They don't know who I am. Grove 42 right?" Ranma asked, his small pack on his back.

"Uh huh." Luffy replied as Boa Hancock was strapping a over-sized bag with food on his back. Ranma sweatdropped when she gave Luffy the the gag toy with a fake mustache and nose as a disguise. As he left he heard the two's conversation and Luffy's idea of good byes.

Several hours later, after giant birds, a rock concert, she-men, lightning storms, giant bugs and plants, fake crews, marines chasing, pacifistas, and coating the Straw hat crew was finally reunited! After greetings and cheer the crew were on their way to see the mermaids.

"YEAH! LETS GOOO TO FISHMAN ISLAND!" Luffy bellowed from the his ship. As the ship sank deeper and deeper in the ocean Luffy realized something. "Darn it! We forgot somebody! Guys! Guys! We gotta go back!"

*POW* Nami hit Luffy on his head before he could do anything rash, and a large bump formed, defying the logics of the gum gum fruit.

"Hey Captain, we have everybody here." Nami did a hand sweep, gesturing to Sanji who was in trance, Zoro, Brook, Robin, Chopper, Franky, and Usopp.

"No we don't! We gotta go back!" Luffy stretched his arms back in preparation of popping the bubble.

*POW* *POW*

"You're going to pop the bubble!" Chopper and Usopp both said, their teeth turning pointy and their eyes narrowing.

"Oh," Robin said, "did you find a new crewmate?"

Nami, Chopper and Usopp froze, they whispered amongst each other. "What do you think _it_ could be? It's Luffy so it might be a talking house." Nami asked dreadly.

"Maybe it's a zombie." Usopp said, his face turning a pale color.

"Or maybe its a spider woman with eight legs." Chopper surmised, his fur turning white.

All three of them put their hands on their cheeks in horror.

Robin sweatdropped while Luffy was attempting to break the bubble once again but was knocked up by a combined effort of Nami, Chopper, and Usopp. Sanji finally snapped out of his trance a moved towards the kitchen with blood dripping out his nose from the sight of Robin and Nami.

"So if the coating were to take a beating from let's say a sea king monster then the coating would break."

Suddenly, while Nami explained the coating, asked by Franky, Sanji blasted out of the ship through a torrent of blood. The chef flew at a frightening pace and into the coating to the horror of Usopp and Chopper. He stretched the coating far and then busted out, unconscious and floating in the deeps.

"Sanji!" Luffy shouted and stretched for the man, his arms wrapping around him in the ocean. Luffy groaned and grunted through the weakening of the ocean. But still, Luffy managed to save the man, as Sanji fell onto the deck with blood dripping out his nose and a smile on his face.

"Oh no! Sanji is going to need a blood transfusion! Do fishmen have the same blood type as humans?" Chopper asked as he tried to make Sanji comfortable while cleaning the blood. "How did this happen?!"

"Oh there you are! I thought we left you on the island!" Luffy cried out relieved when he saw a sleepy person come out of the door. All heads but Sanji who was unconscious, Chopper who was tending to him, and Zoro who was sleeping with his sword in hand.

"Goddamnit." the person mumbled, "I was just sleeping, then I wake up covered in blood... this is even worse than Ryoga..."

Brook was the first one to speak up. "Who are you?" He stood close to the red headed girl. "Can I see your panties?" Without waiting for confirmation, he put head near the girl's baggy pants and pulled it out to look in. He promptly fell backwards in horror. "Boxers!" He whispered hushed tone. The girl just stared at the skeleton.

Franky was the next one to speak up. His robotic hand scratching his changing blue hair as asked, "When did you get on the ship? I was here the entire time."

"I went on a while ago, I've been sleeping in the kitchen after a couple snacks."

"Huh, I never noticed." Franky said scratching his head.

"I'm surprised, it's a normal human." Nami whispered to Usopp.

"This is strange for Luffy, but she probably has some crazy devil fruit."

The girl spoke up again, "I don't have a devil fruit..."

'SHE HEARD US!' Usopp and Nami thought.

"Hey Ranma! You're number ten." Luffy said cheerfully.

"Ten?"

"Yeah! You're the tenth person to get on the ship."

"Ok then."

*Cough* "Aren't you forgetting to do something?" Robin asked.

"Oh yea! Hey guys! This is Ranma. Ranma, this is Robin, Nami, Usopp, Franky, Brook, Zoro, Chopper, and Sanji." He introduced, pointing to each person respectively.

"You weren't lying when you were talking about your crew huh."

Nami perked up, "What did Luffy tell you about us?"

Luffy paled a bit, Luffy wasn't _that_ clueless. Later, Luffy was found beaten up on the deck.

Chopper's, Franky's and Usopp's eyes turned into stars and bulged out of their sockets. "You don't have a devil fruit and you can make tornadoes and turn invisible?!" Chopper said running around back and forth excitedly. "SOOO COOL!"

"Yea I guess, but it's not as cool as a talking reindeer." The still female Ranma said.

"You... You bastard! Complimenting me won't do anything." Chopper replied while moving and waving his arms in a side to side motion.

Robin spoke up, "You said you're not a girl?"

"Yeah, it's just some weird curse from another dimension. I was originally a guy, I can turn to a girl with cold water and a guy with hot water. I'm stuck as a girl... for a certain time each month."

Robin was able to get the clue and covered her mouth in a soft laugh.

"Darn it. I was hoping for another lady in this man infested dump." Nami said whilst toying with her baton. "And you're one of those combat monsters."

Ranma shrugged.

Usopp put his hand on his chin, his face down and his back to Ranma. "You're worth zero beris right. That means..." Usopp whipped around a pointed his finger to Ranma's nose, "that you're under all of our commands! Even Chopper can command you." Usopp put on a snotty face, "Sooo servant, get me a glass of water."

Ranma's aura turned dark. "Go die in a hole."

Within an instant Usopp was behind Franky's massive body, hiding fearfully. 'SCARY!'

"Hey, let's fight." Zoro said simply whilst standing up from his spot near the wall.

"Heh, sounds good to me. Luffy said you're the strongest here."

"Hey whattabout me!" Sanji said, shooting up from his comatose form on the table. One good look at the three pairs of breasts sent Sanji flying back onto the table with Chopper panicking.

Zoro stood up close to Ranma's face. "I don't often fight girls but you'll do."

"I could say the same with you."

"What's that supposed to mean!"

Zoro was suddenly knocked out by the combined effort of Nami and Franky. "No fighting on the ship."

Nami put her face close to Ranma's scanning her face. "You're pretty cute as a girl, what do you like as a guy." Ranma felt sweat build up on his forehead, he could feel the Nabiki danger vibes from Nami. Nami started fondling Ranma's breasts, "Huh they are real." Nami looked down, "Hey where's this blood coming from?"

"STOP BEING SEXY!" Chopper shouted gnashing his teeth threateningly.

Brook held a pair of panties, "Here put these on." He offered to the red head girl.

"Hey! Those are mine!" Nami shouted indignantly.

"How are you holding up as a skeleton. If I took and pulled one of your bones out would you just collapse? Do you drink a lot of milk or somethin'?" Ranma reached out experimentally.

"Ohohoho, you're tickling my stomach." Brook looked up. "And I don't even have skin!"

The group save Luffy and Sanji broke out in a conversation with each other, talking about their past two years, while welcoming their newest member. They talked and laughed happily.

Ranma looked up and smiled. While this was completely new, he could get used to this happy atmosphere.

Author's Notes.

WAAHHH I'm really sorry about the upload time and the shortness of the chapter. This is really just the introduction of the crew and Ranma. Hopefully I can get my schedule back on track. Hopefully the next chapter you guys can see the new skills Ranma has.


	4. Chapter 3

Hellos! Here's the next chapter! What I'm deciding to do is follow the story only up to after the mermaid arc... Then everything (mostly everything) should be from me (I think)! And it's decided, no devil fruit for Ranma! However I'm still debating on a pairing. I have found it very hard to show the scenes... there's just some things mangas have that stories don't.

Chapter 3

"Ahh," the sound of a relaxed sigh filled the bathroom as Ranma slipped into the bubbling tub of water. He reverted back to a male, "Feels nice to be a guy again." Ignoring the screams and shouts from above, Ranma laid back against the smooth stone of the tub, his arms spread across the fiberglass tub. From the bundle of clothes on the ground a small white cat jumped on top of his head and laid on its back with its paws up. Ranma smiled and rubbed the cat, eliciting a soft purr from the cat. The cat couldn't go in water, having eaten a devil fruit. The boy then closed his eyes with a small smile, his mind reminiscing the past two years. Two years of just training was relaxing, as strange as it sounds. It definitely helped him keep his mind off the... incident. This world was certainly something.

Devil fruits were something like a cheat code. Basically eat it and now you're better than everybody else. But with a side effect of not being able to swim, it seemed very ironic in the world of pirates when you're always near water.

Haki was just like Ki as it turned out. He had already been using what Rayleigh called "Kebunshoku Haki" (1) and "Busoshoku Haki"(2) and with Rayleigh's training he was able to heighten those skills to the extreme. It irked him greatly that he did not possess "Haoshoku Haki" (3) like Luffy did. But he could do something that Luffy couldn't do, project his life force. Ranma could do Mouko Takabisha and Luffy could not. Ranma was mighty proud of that. Nor could Luffy replicate the Bakusai Tenektsu, Umisenken, Hiryu Shoten Ha, Soul of Ice or any projection of ki.

His fear of cats was conquered. And he even able to tame and befriend a cat, evident by white cat floating in front of him. He named the cat Akane as a reminder of his former world. Akane, the cat, ate the Size Size fruit, letting the originally giant cat to change its size on will. To cure him of the Neko Ken, Rayleigh just did exactly what Ranma said not to do. Rayleigh had thrown him inside a pit of giant cats, forcing him into the Neko Ken. Rayleigh then beat up Neko Ranma and made Neko Ranma submit to Rayleigh. According to the man himself, Rayleigh used his Haoshoku Haki to assert his dominance over the cat spirit within him and basically trained it with his will. (4) It was definitely a solution Ranma definitely did not expect would work, nor did he expect Rayleigh to be capable of handling Neko Ranma. Out of the situation he was now able to speak to cats, but he couldn't create ki claws that his father wanted out of the Neko Ken. Perhaps it was because he himself didn't conquer his own fear.

Luffy recounted all his adventures, starting from the very beginning. Luffy told his pains and challenges and Ranma told his own. The two had a lot in common, having a father figure intensely train them in unorthodox ways. Neither have really seen their mothers in their childhood. They faced impossible challenges with unwavering courage, never backing down and protecting those they careda bout. However, one main difference between the two was that Luffy made strong bonds and friendships with everyone he met. And Ranma? Jealous fiancees and bitter rivals. Ranma frowned at this difference.

His mind shifted back to reality. Noticing the water getting cooler and his furry companion moving towards the door, he decided to to get out of the tub. As one foot touched the porcelain floor he couldn't help but think about the 'Deja Vu' he was feeling. The door swung completely open.

"Stupid men... can't even understand water currents." A female voice announced.

"Huh..." Ranma thought. Deja Vu indeed.

At the door, was Nami and Robin. The two were completely unclothed, revealing their large and shapely assets. The two women saw male Ranma and paused, but they didn't bother to cover themselves . Ranma, tomato faced, quickly went into Umisenken.

"So," Robin started her eyes scanning the room, "Is that your normal form?"

"Yep!" A voice called out from behind them.

*SLAM* Nami's hand shot out to the frame of the door, right in front of Ranma who lost his concentration and broke Umisenken. Ranma fell on the ground surprised. Akane pounced to Ranma's side growing to the size of a tiger in protection of her master.

"Hey, your male form is pretty cute." Nami said, her eyes trailing Ranma's body.

Ranma sweated, apparently after two years his fear of female judgement does not recede. "Right, I'm just going to go now." He started to inch towards the door.

"Oh relax," Nami said as she walked past the downed martial artist and towards the tub, "we're not going to hurt you or anything. You've seen everything a woman has." Nami turned on the hot water. "You probably experimented too."

Ranma's face glowed an even brighter shade of red. "I have not!" He shouted defensively.

Nami shrugged and slipped into the now hot and bubbling tub and released a sigh of relief. Robin, with a small smile, followed suit.

Ranma stood up and hastily grabbed his clothing and went out of the bathroom with a tiger sized Akane following behind. Ranma closed the door and put his clothing on. He was still red faced and slightly confused at their reactions. They weren't really angry or surprised, just a little annoyed. He shook his head and went to the kitchen, where Sanji was up and cooking. Earlier, he had tried Sanji's cooking. And he had to grudgingly had to admit that Sanji made food much better than Kasumi did, not to mention the chef was able to create a huge variety of food. But the Tendo housekeeper had a much more homely taste to her food. Chopper was also there, insuring Sanji did not lose any more blood than needed. The reindeer doctor had some pictures with women in his hand. Ranma, ignoring the pools of blood on the floor, pulled a chair out and sat back closing his eyes for a nap.

Suddenly the ship started shaking violently, causing Ranma to wake up and get up on the deck. The rest of the crew was already there, he noted Nami was wearing a coat and there was a tied up man who had a really long tongue.

"It's an undersea waterfall!" A few voices called out.

"It's SO COOL!" Luffy cried out. "Look at how fast the water is going!"

"I can't see the bottom! It's all pitch black!" Usopp cried in horror.

In front of the ship was a gaping trench that created a vacuum that was siphoning the water into it, this included their ship.

"HEY Strawhats! Turn back now! We're all in mortal danger!" The tied up man shouted. The crew ignored him to his dismay.

"Look down there!" Chopper called, pointing to the abyss, "There's a monster below!"

The crew congregated around the railing to look down.

"It's the legendary demon monster," Robin said, "roaming the vast ocean, causing terror and never tiring of slaughter."

"It's the Kraken!" Chopper, Nami, and Usopp cried out.

True to their words, there was an gargantuan pinkish octopus. The mere tip of one of its tentacles was roughly the size of the Sunny. All around its body were crushed pirate ships, its tentacles gripping the ships like a toy. The octopus seemed to be smirking at the ship.

"Turn back! Turn back!" The roped man yelled. He was squirming and moving his body back and forth.

"That's a pretty good drawing!" Franky commented, looking over the shoulders of Robin. Robin had a notebook with a drawing of the kraken.

"Thank you Franky."

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM? Don't you get it?! We're all going to die!"

The ship was approaching the smirking behemoth. Its tentacles were moving up towards their ship, squirming and curling along the way. Luffy only smiled, making Ranma grin with him, he had a pretty good idea what Luffy watned to do.

"Guys! I have an AWESOME idea!" Luffy chirped.

The crew and prisoner turned to him wearily.

"Let's make him our pet!" Luffy declared happily, his eyes sparkling in earnest eager. The Gum Gum user was grinning from ear to ear.

"Are you crazy!?" Usopp cried out. They had just gotten together after two long years, and now their own captain wanted them dead.

"Don't be stupid Luffy! That's impossible!" Nami shouted in his face. Luffy was so much more irritating than she remember.

Chopper grabbed Luffy's face tightly, stretching his head closer to the bubble so he could get a closer look at the monster. "Look at it! The Kraken's even bigger than the mountains I've seen!"

Laughter rang out from behind them. The crew turned around to see Ranma chuckling. "Just like training."

Zoro chuckled too, holding a sword up in challenge to the Kraken, "Sounds fun, I want to join."

"NO! Not you too!" Usopp cried out. Usopp shifted over to Ranma, "You're strong right? Get them to stop!"

Ranma looked at the long nosed man in surprise and replied, "What? I'm joining in the fun." He gave Usopp a shit eating grin.

Usopp's face turned ghost white which contrasted the dark and heavy aura he was producing.

Sanji jumped in, "I'm coming too! I'm not letting Moss head over here have all the fun." There was a bit of blood dripping out his nose.

Suddenly, Zoro and Sanji's heads clashed together, their eyes centimeters apart. There was a spark of challenge between their eyes.

"Hey," Ranma spoke up, "It's underwater isn't it? How are we going to fight the octopus underwater anyways? Also, Luffy has a devil fruit."

Luffy looked downcast, "Oh yeah..." he looked out into the water. "Hey Nami! Why are we moving away from the octopus... we need to get closer!"

"No! Are you blind? Do you see all those ships he's holding? I don't want to end up like that!"

"There's something coming at us from behind!" Franky shouted.

"It's that other ship from before!"

The entire crew tensed for a fight when suddenly, and anti-climatically, a tentacle slammed into the approaching ship, smashing it in half.

"The octopus destroyed a ship bigger than us! We have no chance!" Usopp shouted in Luffy's face.

"My mennnn!" The tied man shouted, tears rolled down his cheek.

"The look like little jellyfish." Zoro commented casually. The crew members of the ship were floating up, small bubbles covering their faces.

"Hey, you're right."

"Shut up!" The tied man cried out.

"A tentacle is coming this way!"

"We're dodging it!" Franky declared. "Chicken Voyage!" The ship advanced forward, barely out of the way of the incoming tentacle. There were more tentacles incoming to them, Franky masterfully and hastily dodged each one of them.

"We have to get out of here!" Nami shouted.

"Why do we haveta run? Let's just fight it." Luffy said. Chopper was clinging to Luffy's arm, keeping him from doing anything rash.

"Goddamnit, you people are morons." The tied man shouted.

Ranma chipped in, "Hey you have no right to say anything. Your ship and crew just got obliterated."

"Yeah, they're jellyfish now." Zora added, nodding in agreement.

"Gah! Shut up! Listen to me."

Several frantic moments later, Sanji, Ranma, Luffy, and Zoro were now covered in a bubble. One for each of them. There was rope connected tied around their waist

"That should do it! It's called Instant Flutter Kick Coating! It's like diving suit, the rope is your life line. All you have to do is jump out of the ship. Now go out there and kill yourselves!"

"This rope is pretty constricting..." All four men thought to themselves.

"Hey! Why should we listen to you? We should be running away from the octopus! Fighting it is the last thing we should do!" Usopp said to the prisoner.

"That's what I've been saying in the beginning! Look, either way your idiot captain is going to go crazy, better out there than here. Am I right?!"

"Huh..." Usopp said. That certainly made sense. Better them then him. "Go as far as you want guys! If you're going to fight, fight away from the ship all right?!" Usopp shouted to the leaving men. He sounded much more cheerful than earlier.

"H-hey! Don't run without a lifeline! How are you guys going to get back into the ship?!" Nami cried after them; she realized the rope was not attached to them. To her dismay, her cries were ignored.

The four men were already out in the ocean, running towards the octopus.

"This is pretty cool." Ranma said, looking all around him within the bubble.

Luffy laughed. "Let's go!"

All four fighters ran (floated?) to the octopus, all smiling in anticipation.

* * *

(1) Kebunshoku Haki - Gives the user a heightened and intimate sense of the world around them.

(2) Busoshoku Haki - Gives the user the ability to use their spirit as armor to defend against attacks or use it to make their attacks more potent.

(3) Haoshoku Haki - AKA King's Haki, the ability to assert your willpower over others.

(4) Yea, yea, a bit of an "easy" solution.

It turns out... it's pretty tough having 9+ characters.

Hope you enjoyed this one little scene, this was more of a "HEY I'M ALIVE" chapter. Reviews are VERY much appreciated. Criticism or praise, it matters not.


	5. Sorry

Hello,

Several things here. First off, I want to deeply apologize for bringing anybody's hopes up that this was a new chapter. Secondly, I also want to apologize for falsely informing that the next _Best with the Best_ chapter was coming out in month. Obviously, it wasn't out and it still isn't. So why? I actually had over half the chapter done (~2000 words) on a document at the time I updated the story. Then I ran out of steam as I didn't really know how I was going to incorporate Ranma along with a dozen other characters in an already played out story. I simply couldn't juggle the ten crew members. Perhaps I'm just too inexperienced. Another problem is, honestly, that part of the chapter I wrote out was utterly boring. There was nothing 'new' in it. By that I mean that it had no special twist that made it interesting, no clever one liners, and no originality. I played it out too similar to the actual chapter in One Piece and perhaps your you can't quite remember that chapter, personally it would hurt my pride if I put it out there. As I tried to continue the chapter, there was no excitement in the chapter and for me, personally.

So, what's going to happen?

Honestly, I don't want to completely throw out the fanfic but if I'm not enjoying writing the story, in no way is the content to be good. So the options are...

1) Wait until I get some inspiration and write it

2) YOU could write it and I can edit it in a collab sort of way. Not editing, literally writing (some of) it with some of my edits. Credit will to you of course. Or shoot me some ideas. (This is my preferred choice... PM me if you have anything)

3) Continue it yourself separately

Originally, I was going to go through the Fishman Island arc with the special twist that Ryoga had followed Ranma into the springs and ended up in Fishman Island with a possibility of a devil fruit. Somehow he got lost and ended up underwater in Fishman Island and he can't get out well because... he's thousands of meters deep in the ocean. Now he's guarding Princess Shirahoshi. After the arc, I was going to introduce an entirely new island with original (I think) devil fruits. That's the part I would probably enjoy the most to write... but I'm stuck here.

So... that's that.

Thanks for reading.


End file.
